Total tax cost… number of payments... compliance burden. How does your economy compare to others around the world?

Middle East findings

The Middle East continues to be the least demanding tax framework globally with the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia retaining the top 3 positions in the overall tax ranking.

The case study company has an average Total Tax Rate of 23.7% in the Middle East region; it takes 159 hours to comply with its tax affairs and makes 17.6 payments. It has the least demanding tax system for our case study company.

The Paying Taxes indicators have remained very stable throughout the nine years of this study.

The average Total Tax Rate for the region at 23.7% is well below the world average (43.1%) and the lowest of any region. Labour taxes and social contributions account for 14.4 percentage points of the average Total Tax Rate and this is a common feature for almost all the economies in the region, but still below the world average of 16.3 percentage points. The labour tax and mandatory contributions Total Tax Rate has increased marginally over the period of the study while profit taxes have fallen.

In the Middle East region labour taxes and social contributions are particularly significant for all three sub-indicators accounting for almost 60% of each.

The average time to comply across the Middle East is 159 hours, which is well below the global average (268 hours) and the lowest for any region.

The average time to comply for the region has remained virtually flat since 2004 with a total increase in the average by just 3 hours. This region has required the fewest number of hours throughout the study period.

The average number of payments for the region is 17.6, which is well below the world average (26.7). This is largely because of the low average number of taxes in the region for the case study company.

The number of payments has remained relatively stable throughout the study period, with the average falling from 21.5 in 2004 to 19.3 in 2012.

Key themes and findings

How have business tax systems changed over the last nine years, in your economy and abroad? In what new ways are tax authorities levying taxes today? And what tax reforms are governments implementing around the world?

Regional picture

We’ve expanded our universe to 189 economies, and enriched our data set. Take a close look at our regional findings — and try out our powerful, new comparative modeller to create a customised, strategic view of the data against numerous themes and issues.

The trends

It’s not enough to know where you’ve been. You also need to analyse where your burden of taxation may be heading. Have a look at the global trends over the past nine years for each of the sub-indicators, including the many types of taxation you face.